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FOOTBALL; Repetition, Repetition: Giants Play It Again and Again

Hubris dangled from the Giants' play selection at the outset of the fourth quarter Sunday. Ron Dayne powered behind the right side of the offensive line for 10 yards and Coach Jim Fassel told Kerry Collins to repeat the play; Dayne ran for 9 yards.

Fassel was persistent, and his wishes were relayed by Collins. ''O.K., we're going to run it again until they stop it,'' Collins told his teammates in the huddle. As they walked toward the line of scrimmage, set up in the same formation to run the same play, it was as if they were gesturing at the Jaguars.

Linemen and tight ends feed off this sort of visceral display of power, a quality that had eluded the Giants until Sunday. They rushed for 177 yards and dominated the time of possession in a 24-17 victory that kept them in the middle of the standing. ''Personally, I loved it,'' the backup tight end Dan Campbell said. ''Especially when you start to taste blood, and you keep going after them.''

Jacksonville's defense will not be confused with the Steel Curtain or with the Purple People Eaters, but the Giants pushed around the Jaguars as if they were doll-house furniture and seemed to gain a measure of self-respect. The lack of a power running attack undermined the Giants' offense repeatedly in the first seven games, but now they have something to build on for the second half of the season.

It was the first game since Fassel relieved Sean Payton as the play-caller, and Fassel added only five plays to the original list. Fassel scripted the first 12 plays before the game and made some adjustments with others.

But there were other more subtle changes, each designed to accelerate the pace of the offense. The Giants came out of their huddle and approached the line so quickly that the Jaguars often had to scramble to arrange their defense.

The motion and shifts that accompanied the Giants' offense the last few years were all but eliminated; Dayne mentioned today that he thought the shifting and movement had seemed to tire players during games, the burden of detail wearing on them.

Center Chris Bober snapped the ball almost immediately after the Giants dropped into their stances. And there were fewer changes in personnel from play to play. Fassel told Tiki Barber and Dayne that he would use them for whole series, rather than switching them from play to play. Barber stayed on the field throughout the first and second series, and Dayne took over in the third series, carrying the ball repeatedly, working without a fullback.

Eventually, Dayne carried the ball enough that he had to come off the field to catch his breath, removing his helmet and bending at the knees. It was the first time this happened, Dayne said, since his rookie season.

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Dayne felt the rhythm of the game better. ''My first year, we did this type of offense, where when Tiki was in and when he got tired, he came out,'' Dayne said. ''I went in, and when I got tired, I went out.''

The continuity ''helps you understand what the defense is doing, helps you understand how they're blitzing, where they're coming from,'' Dayne said.

Fassel turned over the play-calling to Payton nearly three years ago and would occasionally impart guidelines for the offense. Before the Giants played Dallas Oct. 6, for example, he told Payton he wanted the playlist streamlined. Mostly, however, Fassel allowed Payton operating room.

Fassel's choices in Sunday's game -- the elimination of the motion, the alternating series for Barber and Dayne -- revealed some differences between Fassel and Payton. Fassel was pressed today about why he did not install those changes earlier, and Fassel spoke respectfully of Payton's skills. ''You give a guy a job and you talk through some things and you cannot tell the play-caller what to do and how to do it; that has to come from him,'' he said.

The Giants may be benefiting from the growing experience of their young offensive line. Jim McNally, the line coach, thought the group would improve from week to week, and he said Sunday's production reflected the learning curve.

Seubert has got lower in his blocks, lowering his backside before driving forward. Mike Rosenthal, the right tackle, practiced his footwork extensively during the bye week, working to drop his right foot back, to square his body with the defensive lineman before he moves forward.

Bober believes his reactions are coming more quickly: If a linebacker blitzes around the right side, for instance, Bober knows the defensive right tackle is going to crash into him. McNally thinks Bober's balance on run-blocking has improved.

The Giants had not run for more than 113 yards in any game and they had developed a short-yardage inferiority complex. But the players began to feel as if they had control of the game early, as if they had complete power over the outcome and the Jaguars. ''We felt more like we were attacking them,'' wide receiver Amani Toomer said. ''When we saw something, we kept going after it.''

Fassel kept going back to the run against Jacksonville, running the same plays over and over, and over.

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A version of this article appears in print on November 5, 2002, on Page D00003 of the National edition with the headline: FOOTBALL; Repetition, Repetition: Giants Play It Again and Again. Order Reprints|Today's Paper|Subscribe